The present invention relates generally to conveying systems in which material is conveyed through tubes, and more particularly to a tube hanger for such conveying systems.
In conveying systems of a type including a tubular circuitous network having a circuitous cable or chain conveyor therein, it is customary to hang such tubes from various support structures around a building or the like. A common type of clamp for such use is a sheet metal structure composed of two parts and having holes in each end. The two clamp parts are then bolted together around such tube and to whatever support structure is provided in the building to provide a hanger for such tubular network. It can be easily appreciated that this is a relatively time consuming procedure since a large number of such support structures are necessary for each cable conveying system and, of course, the larger the system the more time consuming this becomes.
Another problem associated with the prior art of hanging tubular conveying systems is the one of cost. While the total cost for individual hanging mechanism is not great, even a small savings in the manufacturing costs thereof can be very significant because of the large number of such tube hanging devices which are used for each conveying system. Consequently, there is an economic incentive to keep the costs of such tube hanging equipment at a minimum.